Politics & Power Quote by Andrew Cuomo

Cuomo’s line is built to sound like common sense, which is exactly why it’s politically useful. “Essential job” frames the claim as foundational rather than partisan, narrowing the room for debate: if you disagree, you’re not arguing about policy details, you’re disputing government’s basic purpose. The verbs do the real work. “Facilitate” paints the state as a greaser of wheels, a quiet partner to business. “Frustrate” casts regulation as petty obstruction, the faceless clerk with a stamp and a bad attitude. It’s a neat moral sorting: builders versus blockers.

The subtext is a warning shot aimed inside government as much as at opponents. It flatters employers as the primary engines of prosperity while reducing labor protections, environmental review, zoning fights, and permitting delays into one amorphous villain: bureaucracy. That vagueness is strategic. By not naming which rules “frustrate” job development, the quote becomes a reusable tool for almost any deregulatory push, tax incentive package, or expedited approval process. It’s also a preemptive rebuttal to critics who argue that government can create jobs directly through public investment; Cuomo is narrowing the state’s role to enabling conditions, not building the engine.

Context matters: Cuomo governed in the post-2008, competition-for-capital era, when governors marketed states like brands and measured success in ribbon cuttings and headline job numbers. The line sells a managerial identity - pro-growth, impatient with red tape - while sidestepping the harder question it invites: facilitate for whom, and at what cost?